Palmer Luckey Returns to Social Media; Reveals RPG Videogame Development

It’s been a rough few months for Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey. Having suffered a backlash to the public outing of his support for Nimble America – an initiative that backed Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign by way of memes and similar internet-style advertising – and faced a court order for a considerable amount of finance owed to Zenimax Media, Luckey eventually left Oculus VR, the company he co-founded. However, after several months of silence, the keenly outspoken entrepreneur is back on social media.

Luckey took to both Twitter and Reddit earlier this week, beginning by tweeting about Sword Art Online and creating a Reddit post entitled ‘im back’. It started off innocently enough, but of course people soon started asking questions.

On the matter of Nimble America, Luckey stated: “Some people want founders to keep their politics private and away from their business, others think they should do everything out in the open in a vocal way. You can’t make everyone happy, and there are good arguments on both sides , but it is clear that people who happen to align with opinions held by the majority of the media come out ahead either way.

“When a transsexual teenager with bigoted helicopter parents makes anonymous posts on a local support forum, is it because he feels it is wrong? How about fans of Bernie Sanders in the deep south who want to support their candidate of choice without alienating customers and employees who support Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? Whistleblowers in general? Those are not perfect comparisons, obviously, but it shows that there are plenty of reasons to do something anonymously in good faith. If you want to take issue with the actions themselves, fine, but trying to stay out of the political spotlight should not be condemned.”

Palmer Luckey, Founder at OculusAt the time of publishing, Luckey is yet to comment on either the Zenimax Media lawsuit or his departure from Oculus VR. However, those less interested in political agendas and more concerned with the progression of virtual reality (VR) as a medium will be keen to hear that Luckey is still invested in the technology. When asked about the potential of bringing a role-playing game (RPG) to VR, Luckey stated: “Already on it, among other things.”

Whether or not this is Luckey directly involved in the development of a new videogame experience or simply funding a project is not currently known. Of course, VRFocus will keep you updated with any further developments on this potential VR RPG.

Korean AR/VR Companies Partner With Facebook

Facebook is planning to assist promising South Korean companies who have an interest in developing augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies.

The social media giant and owner of Oculus recently signed and agreement with Korea Innovation Center of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and Institute for Information & Communications Technology Promotion to begin supporting AR and VR startup firms based in South Korea. This will mark the first time that Facebook has partnered with a foreign government to support such startups.

Under the new program, Facebook and a Korean government agency will select ten firms and send some of their employees to Silicon Valley for ten weeks to learn about VR and AR technologies and business alongside the team from Oculus VR.

Alex Stamos, chief security officer of Facebook said during his visit to Seoul: “From low-latency competitive gaming to HD video streaming, the Korean market has been the place where the rest of the world can look to see our online future. Facebook gets such great insights from the people and partnerships in Korea, and why we use our experiences here to foresee how the global market will evolve in the future.”

There are currently 30 companies out of 138 eligible firms that are willing to apply for the program. Those who are chosen may even get the opportunity to work with Oculus on turning their products into a commercial venture.

“Outstanding technologies and companies may be considered by the Facebook headquarters for future M&A or supply pool,” said Park Dae-sung, head of policy at Facebook Korea. “We hope to see some very innovative products from killer content to hardware through this program.”

The program will begin in May 2017 until July, where the selected companies will demonstrate their progress as an event in late July.

VRFocus will keep you updated on the Korean Oculus program and other VR start-up projects.

Oculus Co-founder Palmer Luckey Bids Goodbye to Facebook

Palmer Luckey, the co-founder of Oculus VR and designer of the Oculus Rift, is stepping down from his position at the company.

Oculus told Upload VR the news, saying that it will be Luckey’s last week at the Facebook-owned VR headset company.

“Palmer will be dearly missed. Palmer’s legacy extends far beyond Oculus. His inventive spirit helped kickstart the modern VR revolution and helped build an industry. We’re thankful for everything he did for Oculus and VR, and we wish him all the best.”

The result of a record-breaking US$2.4 million Kickstarter campaign, Oculus went on to produce two VR headset developer kits, dubbed Oculus Rift DK1 (released in March 2013) and Rift DK2 (released in July 2014)—devices upon which prospective developers could create VR games and experiences that would eventually populate the Oculus Home store. The two headsets, the direct result of Luckey’s efforts, would go on to kickstart an entire industry.

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Rift DK1 (left), Rift DK2 (right)

Oculus then went on to be acquired by Facebook in March 2014 for US$3 billion, an event that culminated in the launch of the first consumer-level VR headset for the company in March 2016—the Oculus Rift. As a result, Forbes Magazine estimated Luckey’s net worth to exceed US$700 million.

After the acquisition, Luckey however settled into somewhat of an undefined position at the company, oftentimes playing the boisterous, flip flop-wearing front man of the organization when he wasn’t working with the team to develop Oculus Touch, the platform’s natural motion input controller.

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Palmer Luckey hand-delivering the first Oculus Rift to pre-order customer #1 in Alaska

In September 2016 Luckey shied away from the spotlight following community and developer backlash to his association with a polarizing political group Nimble America, which was involved in funding a billboard campaign against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate for the US presidential election.

After the news was out and confirmed by Luckey himself to be true that he was secretly providing funds to the pro-Donald Trump non-profit organization, he went into nearly complete radio silence, stopping all activity on Twitter—unusual for Luckey considering how openly he interfaced with the developers and fans on the social platform.

In December 2016, it was said he would be taking on a new role after ex-CEO Brendan Iribe stepped down to take lead of Facebook’s PC VR division, Oculus confirmed to The Verge, but no verifiable information came out as to exactly where he landed in the company.

Based on a photo courtesy Dallas News
Based on a photo courtesy Dallas News

Earlier this year Luckey found himself the subject (and defendant) in a prominent lawsuit between ZeniMax and Facebook/Oculus centered on an alleged misappropriation of intellectual property (i.e. the Oculus Rift) that ZeniMax says was disclosed under the sanctity of a nondisclosure agreement. A bitter pill to swallow: the lawsuit resulted in a $500 million award to ZeniMax.

Luckey’s absence from Oculus comes nearly on the one-year anniversary of the launch of the consumer Oculus Rift. What’s next for the 24-year old near-billionaire is uncertain at this time.

The post Oculus Co-founder Palmer Luckey Bids Goodbye to Facebook appeared first on Road to VR.

21st April: The Relaunch of the Samsung Gear VR

Samsung and Oculus VR today announced the launch date and price for the new Samsung Gear VR motion-sensing controller. We all knew it was coming, but it’s good to have confirmation of when we can get hands-on with the device and how much it will cost us. What was more interesting about the announcement however, was Samsung’s positioning of the Gear VR; this isn’t just an update, this is a relaunch.

The Samsung Gear VR originally made its debut way back at IFA 2014, Berlin, and launched as an ‘Innovator Edition’ compatible with the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 in December of that year. Subsequently we’ve seen slight revisions of the head-mounted display compatible with more Samsung smartphone handsets, including the Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+, Note 5, S7, and S7 edge. Now however, along with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8Plus, 21st April 2017, the Samsung Gear VR will take on a new persona.

Originally it was believed that the Innovator Editions of the Samsung Gear VR were the beta testing phase, but in reality it seems this was alpha. Every stage has been knocked back a peg as Samsung are ramping up their efforts: new videogame content, new distribution channels for 360 degree video, and even a new Gear 360 camera capable of recording 4K images and video content. The Samsung Gear VR is finally entering it’s prime.

The addition of a motion-sensing controller was an obvious knee-jerk reaction to the Google Daydream; a direct competitor to the Samsung Gear VR that is a much more open platform. Initially Samsung had also pledged to support Google Daydream, suggesting a potential demise for the Gear VR platform. However, this couldn’t seem further from the truth as virtual reality (VR) took up a huge portion of the Samsung Unpacked event today. The Gear VR is clearly a significant endeavour for Samsung, and a huge part of the strategy for the newly unveiled Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8Plus handsets.

Gear VR Controller

The fact that the Gear VR bundle with the motion-sensing controller is only $29 USD more than the Gear VR was offered for upon its consumer launch 18 months ago means that we’ll likely see the bundle offered for free with new smartphone handset purchases. Indeed, Verizon had already committed to exactly this for pre-orders on the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8Plus handsets earlier today before their release date had even been announced. More people invited to experience more compelling content is exactly what VR needs.

There’s no denying that mobile VR is significantly inferior to tethered VR – be it Oculus Rift, HTC Vive or PlayStation VR – but creating an accesible path for a mainstream audience is important. With the wide range of Samsung smartphones now compatible with the Samsung Gear VR and the huge variety of content targetting all kinds of audiences, mobile VR is certainly positoned to act as the ‘gateway drug’ it had been expected to be for some time. And, most likely, this had been Samsung and Oculus VR’s plan all along.

New Samsung Gear VR Web Browser Now Available

As part of the continued stream of announcements for the Samsung Gear VR taking place at the Samsung Unpacked event, New York, today, Oculus VR has announced the launch of a brand new web browser for the mobile virtual reality (VR) device. Available now, the Oculus Browser is available for all commercial editions of the Samsung Gear VR.

The Oculus Browser is a fully native app that renders video, images, and text on the Samsung Gear VR, as well as letting you search the web directly from Home. Using the virtual keyboard users can navigate search engines, websites and social media channels just like you would on a desktop. The browser brings 2D and most 360 degree video content right into Oculus Home.

Whether or not the Oculus Browser is the first taste of the ‘Carmel’ browser revealed at Oculus Connect 3 (outside of the developer preview build for Oculus Rift) late last year is not yet known. However, for regular users of the Samsung Gear VR, any improvement over the previous default browser, Samsung Internet, will be welcomed.

There’s plenty more details on Samsung and Oculus VR’s initiatives to come from today’s Samsung Unpacked event, and VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest details.

Samsung Mobile World Congress Press Conference: A Gear VR Redesign and New Controller Revealed

Samsung hosted a press conference in Barcelona today prior to the opening of the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) event taking place this week. Alongside the reveal of two new tablets and a new class of convertible laptop-tablet device came the news of a redesign of the Samsung Gear VR – one of the most popular mobile platforms for virtual reality (VR) – as well as a brand new input device. VRFocus was at the conference, and has prepared a video from the event to give you all the details straight from Barcelona.

New Samsung Gear VR and Controller

In the video below you’ll find all the details announced regarding the new Gear VR head-mounted display (HMD) and the new controller. No release date has currently been set for the device, however Samsung did announce the company’s next in the series of Samsung Unpacked events, in which the Gear VR has previously played a prominent role, will take place later this month, 29th March 2017, in New York.

Watch the video below for all the latest details on the Samsung Gear VR, and stay right here at VRFocus for more information on the HMD and controller as it develops.